"20-minute drive from one of the most vile Confederate monuments in the great state of Tennessee"

From an article about a Canadian hockey player of Caribbean origins in a major Canadian paper is this statement:

“I never look at myself as a black player,” Subban told ESPN recently, a sentiment he has expressed in the past. “I think of myself as a hockey player that wants to be the best player in the league. I know I’m black. Everyone knows I’m black. But I don’t want to be defined as a black hockey player.” 

It is an admirable wish. What makes it especially compelling, in the Nashville context, is that here is Subban, a Canadian, a child of Caribbean immigrants from a diverse city (Toronto) bedazzling Predators fans and potentially winning a Stanley Cup in an arena that is about a 20-minute drive from one of the most vile Confederate monuments in the great state of Tennessee.

 The title of the article is, "P.K. Subban faces off against the politics of the Old South still on display in Tennessee." This is the link to the article.

http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/nhl/p-k-subban-faces-off-against-the-politics-of-the-old-south-still-on-display-in-tennessee

Subban plays for the Nashville Predators hockey team.

The story has the picture of Jack Kershaw's sculpture of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. It is made of resin and as the article says, "is garishly cartoonish." The article doesn't mention it, but Jack Kershaw was a member of the League of the South. Kershaw was also involved in the opposition to civil rights in the mid-20th century.

In the article Subban actually doesn't say anything about monuments, the Confederacy, or Confederate monuments or Nathan Bedford Forrest.

What is interesting is that a major Canadian paper decided that the story line of their article would be, "Our black Canadian hero Subban is succeeding in America, in Tennessee, in defiance of this place where there are Confederate monuments, and pro-Confederate crazies."

Though Subban isn't quoted saying anything about the Confederacy or monuments to it, it is just assumed that it is a story that he is in such a place where they have Confederate monuments and that is the big story.

Note that the story stresses that Subban is from Toronto, "a diverse city" in contrast to Nashville which, as the article proceeds to explain, is in the center of Confederate crazy-land.

I am sure civic leaders in Nashville will not appreciate that they are seen as Confederate crazy-land. This is not good for business, not good for attacting talented individuals and businesses, not good for real estate values.

This is going to be a factor getting Confederate monuments taken down in America. Cities are not going to want to be seen as Confederate crazy lands.

As the monuments come down in some cities in the South those that still have them will be seen as Confederate crazy-lands.